Recovering Memory a Second Time Around: Translating Fritz Glockner's "Los años heridos. México, La memoria de los desaparecidos 1969-1978."

• In Event: Political Repression, Disappearance and Impunity in Mexico and Guatemala

Abstract

While history may in many cases resemble literature, the project of translating "Los años heridos. México, La memoria de los desaparecidos 1969-1978" (Planeta, 2019), written by novelist and historian Fritz Glockner, will undoubtedly require a practiced literary translator to conduct research of a different sort. The ACLS Guidelines for the Translation of Social Science Texts postulate: “In literature ideas and facts are created by and in the text; in the social sciences they come from outside.” Stated in this manner, historical narrative could easily take into account these two realities. Translation requires the translator to ask such questions as: Who is the intended reader? What background knowledge will be indispensable? Which theories of literary translation need to be reviewed, and in this case, which theories of non-fiction translation need to be investigated? Which extant translations may serve as a guide? At the onset, all of these questions are fundamental for this project to be successful. The goal to “recover” this historical memory for a broader audience is directed at contributing to the short supply of literature and scholarship on the Mexican War of Low Intensity. My presentation will focus on the background research I undertake, as well as the processes I go through before and during the initial stages of the translation. It will include excerpts from interviews with the author, with literary translator Edith Grossman and with Kate Doyle, Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive.

Author

• Elizabeth Polli